Georgia HarrisGLH Project Manager| Independent ConsultantPa, United States
The organizations I have worked with have not. It is becoming an issue right now! There is no sort term solution other than to contract for services. Saving Changes...
Ahmed FathySenior Manager, Enterprise Project Management Office| Department of Education, Northern Territory GovernmentDarwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Most of the organisations i know take this as the normal exit process (Notice Period + Recruitment Process) to fill the gap when senior resources leavs. Thus not guranteeing a person a pisition once his predecessor leaves and give equal opportunity to everybody to be able to replace the leaving team member.
Succession plan normally happens in a very mature orangisations and the one's that have a very high employee engagement and satisfaction. Otherwise it will turn to be a catch 22 situation.
Thanks
Ahmed Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
Personally I have done it once - almost - but I've never met an organisation that routinely does this. We should! Saving Changes...
Ron MontgomeryConsultant| OnPoint 2.0 LLCPlatte City, Mo, United States
I've never seen an organization with a succession plan for retiring senior PMs. There is a great deal of organizational knowledge within the heads of aging PMs and it can't be replaced with a two-week transition period.
Organizations with significant numbers of PMs nearing retirement need to come up with some creative solutions to this problem as it will become more acute in the coming years.
In some organisations I have experienced the plan. Not only because of Pending retirements, but also for promotions and transfers of Senior PMs.
Mostly small scale companies.. Saving Changes...
saurabh mahajanPMP, ITIL, PRINCE2| vodafonePune, Maharashtra, India
Not involved directly in doing this, but have seen plans in action. For a senior PM who was to retire in next 6-7 months was provided with another senior PM who had 4 more years to retire. The plan was to get the new senior PM to learn the role-responsibility-activities-network-etc from the retiring PM. The same was true for VP. Saving Changes...
Henry HattenrathProject Consultant| Tectonic Engineering MSA LLCNew York, Ny, United States
As seen from the prior responses to the discussion, Succession Planning may not always be formalized or obvious in many organizations. Succession Planning may be hidden in plain sight through the combination of Performance Reviews, Employee Training Programs, and employer sponsored membership for employees in professional societies.
Replacing high performing employees with critical institutional knowledge is never easy but managers can plan for the event. But inherent in the responsibilities of managers at every level is to be prepared for employees to retire or to leave the company.
In a PMO that I have been involved, there is an established hierarchy of project management positions that include Project Coordinator, Assistant Project Manager, Project Manager and Senior Project Manager. If the Senior Project Manager retires or leaves the organization, the preferred action plan would be to appoint a high performing PM to Sr PM.
Effective managers routinely train and coach employees in mastering performance of responsibilities, and in handling increased responsibilities. This is usually documented during Performance Reviews by the managers where employees’ technical and management competence, strengths, weaknesses, and potential advancement are assessed.
In addition, most organizations provide in-house and out-sourced training and continuing education to employees that increase institutional knowledge, business skills, technical knowledge and competence and management effectiveness. This resource will assist managers develop strong candidates for positions of increasing responsibilities.
Managers that prepare employees to be effective and highly competent managers will allow themselves the opportunity to become high level managers.
Saving Changes...
Al TaylorI.T. Contractor| IndependentWaterloo, Ontario, Canada
We use a trap door and a long fall ! Saving Changes...
James SlatonR&D Projects Manager| OI AnalyticalCollege Station, Tx, United States
We do not do this, but we have had smaller contingency or continuity plans for things like maternity or paternity leave. Saving Changes...
We have been working on overall workforce planning/succession planning resources for our agency, to include planning for critical positions (many of which have employees who will be eligible to retire within the next five years). Strategies include many of which Mr. Hattenrath mentions. Saving Changes...
